For the same reason people still use the pretty outdated '51 :-) And, most of the people even use the even prettier outdated '48, too! It's there, in almost every PC... (in the form of an embedded 8042 in the chipset).

65(C)02's were one of the most widespread embedded controller - partially due it's very simple structure, hand optimised to a handful of transistors. One of its adoptors was Rockwell, so you could find them embedded in many Rockwell (now Conexant) modem chipsets (in the times when modems were modems - "winmodem is not a modem").

I had been programming 65C02's for some 5 years (although they were obviously on their decline already) and I enjoyed it a lot.

Oh yes, 6502's were the heart of the "BBC micro" 8-bitter, produced by Acorn, and was reportedly the main inspiration for the Acorn Risc Machine, known today widely as ARM ....

Jan Waclawek

PS. Oh yes, you can still buy them at the ultimate source - http://www.westerndesigncenter.com/